Unless you have studied arbitrage trading I should advise you to leave your blackjack bankroll at home, or at least in front of you. It’s easy to get carried away with the might big win, but you don’t want to be the guy that pays the dealer at the end of the night because you had a reason to bet $10 on two different streets!
So lets say you’ve decided to try your hand at blackjack online, and you deposit $100 – a good amount for you and isn’t too bad if you think about it. Now you sit at a table in a Vegas casino and decide to play with $1, $2, $5, $10, $25, $100, and $500. Now the progressive side has a $1000 payout, but the dollar amounts start to get above $1 and $2, and the idea is that you should “play within yourself” and bet the most expensive because you most likely to lose and of little risk.
Now you’ve made the decision to play 7meter online, and you’re feeling secure – you have the bankroll to spare and you like the atmosphere of the casino.
Now the dealer starts dealing the cards and you have forgotten (or simply mislaid) the $10, so you pick it up, put it in the tray, cross your arms and smile – the deal is that you now have $95.
“Cheques please!”
The deal is that the banker gives each player two cards and seats them in the “come” area (dealer position). You know which player is the dealer because the dealer always deals the cards from left to right, so the player is not the dealer. However the bank does keep the betting with the usual “low limit” betting until the player says “Low Hand” or “High Hand” and takes the cards in exchange.
Therefore you may place a bet of $5 on the “Low Hand” area (which is the table minimum, not the five dollars that you put at the bottom of the machine). Alternatively you can choose the “High Hand” bet, which is the topmost area – the same as “Low Hand”, however it’s $10, rather than $5.
After this round of betting, the dealer deals each player another card face up in the “come” area – and the card showing is the card you were using to determine your strategy (in the “Basic Strategy” you would have said that the ace was your best card).
The dealer then opens the cards in the “rays” (the bathroom area – remember we talked about the “rays” being the garbage can). The player to the immediate left of the dealer receives the first card and can then either
(a) Wait for the official bet to be put in by the person before him, (b) Receive the official dealer card and agree to the payout – or (c) Close the bet and return to Receiving New Cards.
If he chose to wait, the player must wait until the next card, or (d) if he chose to receive the dealer card, the dealer repeats the procedure, and performs this action – or (e) if he chooses to quit, the dealer puts a card in the player’s hand, the player needs to shuffle that card, if you’re a beginner this scene can be a little confusing, because you’re not being paid for this act – it’s your finalpayment.
Now you’re allowed to take a new card for each of the three thousands of possible combinations, so theoretically there are 47 cards in total, but the card designs vary, so you need to be very sure of the 54 cards you do decide to play. Some people play a pair of Aces and Kings (the two highest cards) so that they can form the strongest 52 card hand. When you’re done, you close the final bet by putting the final card face up in the center of the “active” shoe (dealer area), that’s the only hand you play.
Now you receive two more cards (online it’s the same), and (4) there are 4 Kings and 2 Aces in the center (the four Kings and the two Aces). So you have 8 outs to win the hand by the use of your remaining four Kings.
Now (5) you decide not to draw any cards, you have 9 outs to win the hand by the use of your remaining cards, 18 in total.
…and (6) the dealer has 9 outs to beat your hand, 24 in total.
Finally the dealer shows (7) one of his remaining cards, a 10th card, and (8) your hand beats his. You’ve won the hand, and not only that, you’ve won more money than you would have otherwise.